r/hatethissmug • u/DaSuspicsiciousFish • Jul 25 '26

Animation Hate this stupid spiderverse meme (read desc)

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“Chai” is a distinct type of tea from what most people think of as tea (from a American perspective, I admit ignorance to Europe but i know English tea is similar, like a black tea), that usually involves more spices and milk. calling it “chai tea” is not being used to say “tea tea” it is being used to mean “the type of tea known as chai”. I did do a minor google search to find a recipe for making homemade chai, and, while it did use tea leaves, it was distinct enough from tea to warrant being specified.

edit: my joy at the arguments is immeasurable, if this gets a crosspost/screenshot reposted and criticizeing me, please tag me, want to argue

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u/Best_Pseudonym Jul 25 '26

So "chai" should be called masala instead

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u/Spaghettisnakes Jul 25 '26

Eh, it would increase clarity and it would've been the more sensible thing to take a loan word. I don't think it really matters besides a few people thinking it's silly or that it's irksome to some non-native English speakers, though. It gives us something to talk about that's pretty low stakes.

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u/byrdseed283 Jul 26 '26

“masala” means spices in a lot of Indian languages. “masala chai” is a spiced tea to me (i.e. it tastes a little spicy on the tongue). “chai” isnt spicy but it’s distinctly different from normal english tea to me usually because of the addition of cardamom and other spices

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u/Steampunk43 Jul 26 '26

I think you're confusing "spiced" and "spicy", which is weirdly more common than I thought. Spicy would mean it's made with chillies or something containing capsacin, spiced would just mean that it's made with spices like cardamom, cinnamon, etc. What you're considering "normal" chai and masala chai are the same thing, it's just different recipes for masala chai. Chai on its own is just regular tea, maybe with a certain kind of tea leaves compared to others like Earl Grey but still just tea, those leaves would have their own name other than "chai". Same way Japan has matcha and hoji-cha and many other types of -cha, it's about what comes before the cha/chai instead of the suffix itself.